Decision making online

Guys, I have a problem that maybe you can help me with.

With such a short amount of time to make decisions when playing online, have any of you developed a system to help you make marginal decisions without taking 3-4 minutes?

I mean, when considering your pot odds and implied odds, your opponents range of hands, what hands you can beat and what play ultimately to make and for how much.... these are difficult factors to form a decision with when you have maybe 30 seconds.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Think faster, lol.

But seriously, some people like to use poker calculators. Other than that, just keep playing and develop a good poker instinct.

use pokerstove, its really helpful

Just remember these basics. All are on the flop, so when the villain bets a certain % of the pot, take these into account. All are based on making your hand by the river

- Inside Straight Draw - 16%

- Open-Ended Straight Draw - 31%

- Flush Draw - 35%

- Flush Draw + 2 Overcards - 54% (This 1 is generally not a definate rule of thumb as you have to be 100% sure that if you catch you're over card you're not going to be up against 2-pair or a set)

- The Mother Of All Draws (Flush Draw + Open Ended Straight Draw) - 54%

Generally with a hand like an Open Ended Straight Flush Draw, you wanna ship it in on the flop, even against a set you're a 42% dog, so i'm sure you can imagine what sort of equity you have against a pair.

BtW, do you have a HUD or PT3? These will help massively for 'what villains hand ranges are'. If you haven't then I seriously suggest it if you're a big cash game player.

Try this link for a free trial of PT3 - http://www.pokertracker.com/

Hope this helps though

The only real way, barring helper software, is experience. There are a lot of odds and math in poker, but similar situations come up very often; knowing your odds to hit a straight or flush on the turn, or example. That's why some people are capable of effectively playing 20 tables at a time.

A lot of time when old-timey poker players talk about "instinct", they're really talking about subconscious memory of every similar hand they've played, and the outcomes.